Making good on our promise to do good!

Today, I want to share how excited I am by our approach to corporate community investment and introduce you to the new programs we are supporting this year, working hand in hand with non-governmental organizations.

Nokia believes that being part of the solutions to today’s global challenges is not just optional - it’s our duty, and our pride. Our CEO Rajeev Suri said it loud and clear to all present at Mobile World Congress 2017 in his keynote speech. It starts with developing technologies that deliver social progress, more efficient industries for a more sustainable planet. But we are also convinced that business can reach its full potential for innovation and success when it creates shared value for communities, for our company business and employees and for our stakeholders. That makes me even prouder to be part of Nokia.

Building on our corporate community investment approach, we aim to put technology to good use for communities around the world and the planet. We decided to focus on sustainability challenges where Nokia can make a real difference with the greatest positive impact on communities, in full alignment with our business drivers.

Connecting the unconnected, empowering women, saving lives

Three main themes drive our efforts – to connect the unconnected, to empower women and to save lives. Wherever possible we use our technology and know-how to do this. Our vision to expand the human possibilities of the connected world is not just a slogan, it’s part of our company’s DNA, and our way to create shared value.

These three themes are also aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and will help us to contribute to many of them, including partnering for the goals, better access to education, gender equality, reducing inequality, more sustainable communities and improved health.

We know we cannot reach these SDG goals alone. Driving our social investment forward in 2017, we are delighted to initiate new collaboration with key NGOs. Together we’ll deliver 7 new programs in 2017 with positive impacts for communities all around the world.

Diversity is strength

Women and girls make up at least 50% of the world’s population but are still heavily under-represented in business, especially in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) disciplines. Firstly, we are supporting the following four new projects that aim to encourage young people - particularly girls – into STEM based careers:

greenlight for girls helps inspire young women in science. The aim is to engage participants aged 11 – 15 from local schools, ideally with at least 20% coming from less advantaged communities, with hands-on Science & Technology workshops and activities run by role-model professionals. In 2017, we aim to create initiatives for girls in 11 countries spanning the regions where we operate.

Rails Girls Summer of Code is a global fellowship program aimed at bringing more diversity into Open Source. Successful applicants are paid a monthly stipend, from July-September, to work on selected Open Source projects

Anita Borg Institute connects, inspires and guides women in computing and organizations around the world that view technology innovation as an imperative. As an ABI partner, we take part in programming that helps our women technologists thrive at all levels of our company.

Nurturing young people

We are also sponsoring the HundrED education initiative that seeks the most inspiring innovations in education practices and creates a global sharing platform for teachers around the world. During 2017 the project focuses on finding hundred exciting educational practices from around the world.

JA Worldwide (Junior Achievement) is partnering with Nokia to provide STEM Innovation Camps, an intensive 1-2 day competitive experience for students aged 15-18. Under the guidance of Nokia volunteers, young people will develop idea-generation and collaboration techniques, while developing a business plan in response to a given STEM challenge. The 2017 initiative will launch in 5 key countries across North & South America, and Europe.

Saving and improving lives

We will support UNICEF during the next 2.5 years on their mHealth project in Indonesia for better health and nutrition in the country. The objective of this pilot project is to strengthen community capacity to take appropriate actions to safeguard the nutritional and health status of families and children under five.

We genuinely look forward to delivering on our promise with these great initiatives and with our partners, dedicated to making a positive change happen for people and communities worldwide. Stay tuned to this channel for updates!

Visit our Sustainability page to see what we’re doing to expand the human possibilities of the connected world.

About Sandra Cornet-Vernet Lehongre

Sandra is our enthusiastic head of Corporate Responsibility, leading Nokia sustainability strategy, reporting and stakeholder participation on the economic, social and environmental aspects including community investment. Value and impact are her favorite words. They inspire her to build on Nokia’s long-standing sustainability commitment to engage the company and stakeholders to champion efforts that meet today’s challenges and risks and turn them into successful opportunities.